Canada: Number of Registered EVs More Than Doubled This Year

In the small automotive market that is Canada, EVs are making substantial gains year over year.

Nissan LEAF Usually #2 in Canada in Terms of Monthly Sales

Last year, there were 1,600 EVs registered in Canada. This year, we are up to 4,000 and climbing.

Many factors are driving this growth, and the World Wildlife Fund of Canada must be one of the strongest. In fact, each province and, in some cases individual towns, have a “climate change strategy” and, along with that, set goals to reduce pollution.

The recently released report by the International Panel on Climate Change serves as ammunition for the WWF-Canada in goal revisions heading forward. The new goals are stunning to say the least: 600,000 total EVs on the frozen roads of Canada in less than seven years. That number translates to 10% market share by 2020. Will the Canadian market be able to purchase 350,000 EVs in the final two years leading up to 2020? I’m not so sure.

The growth of the EV industry is close to an exponential rate, just what Canada (and the US for that matter) need to hit lofty targets.

Believe it or Not, the Tesla Model S Had a Month or Two of Strong Sales in Canada

What the OP did not mention is that half of those sales are in Quebec and account for only 25% of the population. So that means Quebec buys twice as many as the ROC (rest of Canada). Of course, the $8K point of sale instant rebait helps, but the severe lack of inventory hurt sales also. After owning my Volt for 18 months now, i am till shocked at how many know nothing about EV’s or the EREV Volt. Aside from Tesla, the Volt (or Ford’s EREV) is the only single family vehicule that makes sense in this part of the woods, so GM is missing out in Quebec.

Just a note on the impressive numbers for Canadian EVs …
“That number translates to 10% market share by 2020.”

British Columbia plans to lead the country by reaching 10% ZEV goal by 2016 along with California, Oregon, Washington. The ZEV goal is part of the recently signed “Pacific Coast Action Plan on Climate and Energy”: http://gov.ca.gov/news.php?id=18284

Brian, great catch. I wasn’t focusing on BC in the article, but it would have been perfect to mention that news as one of the keys to success.
Also, even tho I tease when I say “frozen roads up north” I do have high hopes for increased sales in Canada.

What? How can this even be possible, since Nissan only sold about 300 Canadian Leafs in all of 2013, and they’re currently out of stock? Even if Tesla and Chevy each sold twice as many as that each, that’s still half as many as have been claimed to have been sold to the whole country this year. But the thing is, you said “registered”, not “sold”. That either means about half of the EVs sold in Canada have been bought in the US (possible, and even likely, considering the huge disparity in pricing, but American dealerships will almost universally not sell new cars to anyone with a Canadian address Ref: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-drive/car-life/drive-video/video-ctv-saskatoon-buying-a-car-south-of-the-border/article14924552/) OR, as has been noted in the past, people are registering their gas-burning cars as electric when they’re totally not electric, just to get around emissions regulations. There was a story in the news a few years ago (before any automaker was building electrics) about how most of the cars registered as EVs were actually old beaters that couldn’t pass AirCare, and subsequently once ICBC bothered to check under the hood, such registrations nearly evaporated. So perhaps “registered” really means “Uh yeah, my car is the new Electric Cadillac… Read more »